Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-03-19
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL

A gross Of steel pens, formerly costing
$35, may now be produced for eight
cents. The cost of making gold chains
has been reduced to an eighth of what it
was. These illustrations show the di-
minished cost of production in metal
work.
An artesian well being sunk at White
Plains, New, is down over 9, 800 feet, and
can 60 no further until the water, which is
seventeen per cent. salt, and so heavy that
the ropes and tools float on it and the
drill does not penetrate the rock, has
been shut out.
Some time ago, says Southern paper,
the United States Navy Department
wanted mast for war vessel that
should be perfectly straight, eighty-four
feet long and twenty-four inches square
at the top. Agents df the government
tried in vain in several States to have the
contract filled. At last the matter came
to the notice of some lumbermen of Or
augsburg, S. c., who made search, and
in a short time discovered on the Edisto
several trees that came up to the require
ments. One was cut down, hewn and
shipped to its destination.
The New York State Board of Health
has prepared a report on the pathogenetic
powers of contaminated ice, in which i,
is stated that ice formed in impure water
may contain from eight to ten per cent.
of the organic matter dissolved in thc
water, and in addition a very large amount
of the organic matter that was merely sus-
pended or floating in it. 1t may also
contain living animals and plants, rang
ing in size from visible worms down to
the minutest spores, and the vitality of
these organisms my be unaffected by
freezing. Such ice is unfit for use in
drinking water, for it may cause serious
illness.
In an English discussion of railway
speeds it appears that rigid tests with
Bristol and Exeter engine, with 9-foot
single driving-wheels, gave so miles an
hour as the greatest attainable rate down
an incline of in 90 with no load, a sin
gle car reducing this to 7s miles. A
Great Western engine, with S-foot wheels,
could do no better than as miles down l
in 100. On level or ascending grade
the maximum can be but little more than
60 miles an hour. As these engines were
designed especially for giving the great
est possible speed, it is affirmed no mod
ern motors are adapted for beating their
records, and that reports of train-r'mning
at more than IS miles an hour, even for
the shortest distances, must be due TO in
accurate timing or other errors.
Considerable interest has lately been
manifested in statement published by
NJ. Villon, a French chemist well known
for scientific research, that he has discover
ed an alkaloid poison of pronounced char
acterlstics in decayed animal tissues.
This poison is quite powerful, dose of
five centigrarhmes being sufficient to kill
a dog. The interesting point in NJ. Vii
Ions researches is the fact that in his in
vestigations he applied tests to spoiled
-four, because Of the likeness of gluten
to animal tibrin, and in that way discov-
cred the poisonous alkaloid. Spoiled and
decayed flour has a peculiar appearance
and foul, caustic, pungent, bitterflavor.
It tastes hot and singing, somewhat like
pepper, according to the stage of decom-
position. Dough made from it is also
bitter to the taste and offensive to smell,
and it crumbles in hot water and affects
the stomach. Plaques have
been attributed to the use of decayed
-four, the great plague in Rome being
cited as an instance. Wheat flour. spells
very easily, especially in the months be-
tween March and August, when a fer
mentation sets in that goes on through
the succeeding months until the spelling
is complete.